an opinionated sports blog

February 29, 2012

This isn’t sports related, but it’s the best forum that I have so I’ll just come out and say it: I have a beef with Leap Day.

It’s not the fact that we have an extra day every fourth year because I do understand the reason for it. Because of the inexactness of the actual time it take the earth to rotate around the sun, our calendars don’t exactly match up, creating a difference of about six hours every year. Leap Day is the means to keep the two in sync.

But why did the Powers That Be have to make February one day longer?

The most common response that you’d get is that it’s the shortest month, so why not give it the extra day? Understandable, but they’re missing the point: It’s February!

Nobody wants an extra day of perhaps the worst month on the calendar. Nobody wants an extra day of cold, windy winter (although it may not be the best year to bring up bad winter weather). No child wants an extra day of school, either. Nobody certainly wants an extra day of the blahs.

Why can’t we move Leap Day to a better destination on the calendar: June.

Think about what we’d be getting: An extra day of summer; a nice gift of knowing that every fourth year, your vacation could be one day longer. It would even make Canada Day weekend that little bit more special knowing that Leap Day is involved.

Now, I know that technically, we won’t be guaranteed another actual day of summer. But this move would be a massive psychological boost to the world in a time with a ton of depression. It’s more about the mental effect than anything.

You obviously couldn’t take an extra day onto May, July or August since they already have 31 days and by the end of September, it’s already starting to get into the fall chills.

As for those born on February 29, they’d get the novelty of knowing that they’ll never age another year (technically).

So, if anyone can think of a better reason as to why we can’t move Leap Day, or at least start a campaign to have it considered, I’m all ears. And if the best reason that you can come up with is that “this is how it has always been,” well that’s just not good enough. And if you can find a person that would rather have an extra day in February than in June, well they might be just as crazy as Leap Day’s originators.